Following the Painful Path
by benjibijuu
Summary: i decided to add some realism. A story about a kid whos been shunned all his life, finding out he has power. also sasuke, coming to grips with who he is, and what life is to him. darker secrets inside, and a fanfic not based upon, 'true love'
1. Chapter 1

Just read it, give it a chance, if, after a couple of chapters, you don't like the way things are going, just stop reading, if however you are enjoying this story, please, continue to...

_**Following the Painful Path**_

Sasuke stood atop the Hokage mountain, leaning against a spike of the 3rds hair. He squinted against the glare of the sun and looked down on the hidden village of the leaf. Everyone milled about, continuing their relatively pointless lives, doing whatever they could to simply continue to exist. His life had a true purpose. What would he have done though, if his brother hadn't have given him such a purpose? Just who would he be? All because of his brother...

The old anger rose inside him as memories came flickering back. Leaves whirling in the darkness, his brothers indifferent, apathetic gaze. His parents, lying with glazed eyes on the floor... His brothe'sr rock hard punch to his gut.. the fear as he ran away, from his brother, from his dead parents... just to live... His muscles tensed, he stood, poised atop of the thirds head, and tilted his head up savouring the rage. He would use this against him, it gave him strength, to train harder, run faster, to ignore those around him, the distractions. He still didn't understand the reason his brother had given... To measure his container?

Anger... What.

Energy shot through his body...

The.

Eyes glared, seeing his brother's face, his indifferent,emotionless... .

Fuck!

His hand slammed into the rock surface, leaving a slight indentation in the surface. His arm ached as the chakra that had shot through it left just as quickly. His wrist felt wrong. He turned and began the long walk back down the mountain. He would go to the hospital. He had meant to go for a long time anyway, his eyes occasionally itched, and recently it had started to hurt. Trudging down the mountain Sasuke continued to remember, because these memories helped him... he wasn't going to lose them.

Anyway, tomorrow he needed to be at his best, for the next stage of his ninja tuition. He wondered who he would be put in a team with. Probably some losers who needed protecting. He was the best rookie in his year, after all...

A child with blonde hair sobbed, as his arm, with bone sticking out of, was kicked one last time. Blood seeped around him. Whose was this blood? He looked down his body, uncurling as he heard the mob run away. There was a knife protruding from his chest, and his orange jacket was stained. Every breathe made the knife inside him tear a little bit more, working its way into him...

He lurched up, and stumbled down the alleyway. Their was a channel in the mud, indicating where he had been dragged. He sobbed again as he fell slightly, bouncing away from the wall. He felt something grate...

His bone was sticking out of his arm... his bone was...

Getting out of bed, Naruto tore himself away from musing about his path to becoming a Genin. It had only made him stronger. When the old man had asked him, after one particularly vicious beating( his collarbone had been shattered from the swing of a hammer, and he now bore a scar down his flank, after attempting to dodge a thrown butchers knife), if he would like to get stronger, by training as a ninja, Naruto had almost cried in gratitude. There was a way. To strike back. To escape. He had felt something lurch in his stomach as he pondered what he would do to those particular people who had picked on him incessantly over his childhood; Those who had started the beatings as soon as he got out of the orphanage and was given an apartment of his own. That lurch had changed into a burning pain. It 

felt good, it felt like something to take power out of. Power in which he would train harder, run faster, to ignore the looks of hatred around him...

Slipping into his black top and slipping into his blue calf-length trousers, he looked at himself in the mirror. When Mizuki had nearly killed him the day before, something had _slipped _inside him. Something that coursed through his veins, set them afire, and sent a shock of rage through him. As soon as he had felt that anger, he had turned around and looked at himself. REALLY looked. An orange ninja? Who was so weak he could not protect his friends? Was that the sort of person he wanted to be? No. He wanted power. Power which he would use to protect those who he held close to him. Looking up at Iruka, feeling hot blood drip onto him, _Iruka's blood _he had felt only fear. Next time his only feeling would be anger, and he would exact vengeance where it was due.

His top went down to just passed his elbows, the silky material felt weightless on him as he moved, perfect for the swift, silent kill. The swirl had stayed onto his back, except now it was blue, and also adorned his blue calf-length trousers, to the side of his right thigh in black. Stepping out the door, he tied on his hitai-ate. Patting the kunai and shuriken pouch pinned onto the back of his trousers he sighed. He was ready, to gain power, to learn how to kill, to learn how to protect. He wondered who he would get on his team. They would probably laugh at him as they always had, assuming that he was the same, happy, puppy Naruto. They would sigh that they got the weakling in their team. He would prove them wrong. He would prove every one of them wrong. Even if he needed to show his power, by besting them, he would show that he was strong. With that thought, Naruto set out for the academy, where he would find out who he would have to protect, who he would have to beat, and who he would have to gain recognition form.

Waking, bleary eyed, he looked up at the blurry front of the classroom. Rubbing the sleep from his sticky eyes, he looked once again at the front of the class. Focusing his gaze on an unrecognizable black back he wondered who would have all the Kunoichi craning to get a look at. Turning around to the sniffing Kiba next to him he asked, 'Hey, who's the new guy?'

Kiba continued to sniff the air curiously for a few seconds before turning to Shikamaru, ' It smells like... like... Naruto.. but it cant be... the guy hasn't spoken for the past ten minutes, and he's just nodding. Dammit, I wish he'd just _turn around _already, he must have noticed that the entire class has stopped talking, ever since he walked through the door and up to Iruka-sensei's desk.'

Sasuke walked through the door to the classroom, thinking about what the hospital had told him. A doctor, with an inane smile plastered across his irrelevant features had told him to find a man named Hatake Kakashi, who would have "all the answers"... what an idiot. His attention snapped back to the classroom. Something wasn't right, he couldn't put his finger on it but there was something definitely missing...

None of the girls were looking at him. Not one. Sakura and Ino had glanced at him as he walked through the door, but that was it. He didn't get even a cursory glare from Naruto. He would miss him, he admitted to himself fleetingly. Naruto had failed the exam, predictably. He wouldn't be distracted, though, as he needed to train harder than ever, if he was going to catch up with his brother.

What was up with his morning? There was another enigma. A complete stranger was standing at the desk of Iruka sensei, having what seemed to be a private conversation, considering the hushed tones. Whatever, he decided that he didn't care, he just wanted to be stuck in his team and given his first mission.

'So it's agreed, Naruto?' Iruka asked in a quiet enquiry, 'What happened yesterday will remain a secret, as intel on THAT scroll needs to be kept to a bare minimum, to prevent it falling into enemy hands.'

'Sure sensei, no need to worry about it. So... how's the back?' Naruto's gaze lowered.

'Fine, well, not fine, but I'll live. Now I think its time you gave everyone who's trying desperately to find out who's the new guy a shock, right?' Iruka arched an eyebrow.

Naruto chuckled, 'sure sensei, but don't wait too long, I want to find out who'll be in my new team, they better not be too weak...'

With an ironic laugh from Iruka Naruto turned around, keeping his face down. He quickly made his way to the back of the classroom, where he sat next to the moody raven-haired rival. He wondered how the famous _Sasuke_ would fare against a thousand clones...

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly when the _loser _finallyraised his head. When did Naruto get so... serious? It was definitely Naruto, but... it wasn't. The loser had finally thought seriously about being a ninja, and had opted for a change of clothes. The loser flashed him a grin, letting the old Naruto shine through the new colder person for a second...

Then suddenly the look changed, and Naruto's visage suddenly hardened into a frown as he turned to the rest of the class, who were looking at him with obvious contempt.

'What are you all looking at!' Naruto shot a defiant look around the classroom, at all the stares, all the sneers, all the doubters, all the people who had ignored him his entire life... The boiling anger in his gut flared, just like yesterday, 'something' just permeated into his head, this something, it felt like it had its own will, it felt like a different _being _alarmingly, this something spoke, within him, to him, and it gave him anger along with it, and power... ' TELL them, SHOW them who YOU'VE become, _show them_'

Sasuke saw the blonde, head bowed and shaking. He couldn't see his eyes, through the hair... Sasuke frowned, he hadn't realised Naruto had grown his fringe, he was sure when he sat down he still had the same old spiky look...

Naruto shivered, his muscles felt weird, his eyes began to itch. His muscles began to tense up. His eyes weren't itchy anymore, they were dam painful. He squinted against the harsh light. Everything seemed... sharper...

A growl reverberated around his skull, it grew louder. He bowed his head lower, felt hair brush against his eyelids,

'SHOW THEM!' Naruto's head snapped up at the command. Now all he felt was anger coursing through him, every muscle was ready

Naruto abruptly stood up, and glared at the class around him, all those staring faces, looking at him, judging him, hating him, fearing him, for no goddam reason...

'Why the hell are you here, when you failed the exam!?' a shout came from the front of the classroom.

This brought a visible flinch from Naruto; they still thought he didn't belong? They still didn't acknowledge him?

' You don't deserve to be here!, who'd you rob the hitai-ate from?, get out, loser!, yea!, get lost'

They were all around him, shouting at him, Iruka had tried to stand up, but had collapsed with a grimace, his face as pale as the glaring full moon, the one he had spent the last night huddled atop of his roof under, wondering what the next day held for him, new adventures, team mates, the advancement 

in his new aim. He had shivered in anticipation as he sat, wondering, at the stars, what his next day held for him.

Two kunai appeared in both hands, quick as a flash. The anger was coursing, brimming, threatening to spill out from him, and was literally _giving_ him the energy. The voice was shouting in his head to '_prove yourself_' and Naruto's eyes were still blue, but the pupils were more animalistic, his pupil an intimidating black slit.

Everyone tensed as the weapons appeared. Sasuke smirked; Naruto couldn't hit a 4 foot target, let alone accurately get anyone from the sort of distance he was at the moment, lethally anyway. He continued to smile, though the said grin vanished when Naruto moved. _fast._

Naruto's chest heaved, the voice screamed for blood, and the kunai pressed at the throat of the faceless embodiment of his tormentors drew blood... He glanced around him and the anger wavered, fear peeped through, he faltered.

There were a lot of people around him, pulling kunai out, shurikens, even senbons. Apparently this guy had been some kind of leader... Sasuke got up and strode over to the fight, silently slipping through to the front. He looked to the front, and saw Iruka struggling to get up off his desk, there was a lot of blood running down the back of his jacket...

Naruto was in the middle of a ring of armed ninja, all supposedly at his level, and his brain was in a confused whirl... He was going to get beaten, probably worse than ever before, and this time everyone would see, see him as weak, _see_ him as a complete loser... Red Chakra flared around Naruto, not a lot of it, not enough to see unless you had _very_ good eyesight, but Sasuke's eyes had always been the best in his class, and as everyone advanced on Naruto Sasuke could see just a glimmer of red start to seep out of Naruto's skin. Still, he was surrounded, and he was going to be beaten to a pulp, for being _different_, for standing up to the class bully. Sasuke grinned, inside counting, grabbing hold of a kunai, he set his feet apart, steadying his centre of gravity, he felt like getting into a good fight anyway... It had been so long, and this many would be a challenge even for him. Plus he was different.

Everyone was jumping at him, weapons drawn

'C'mon he started it!' 'He'll regret that!' 'Fucking die, freak!' Naruto felt the anger flare, felt his skin burning. His hands came together, to form the last weapon he had, against numbers, you fight with numbers. Too late he noticed the shuriken seconds from embedding itself into his throat. His hands were too far down to effectively block the weapon, and he stood, immobilized by _fear..._

Everyone froze as the number 1 rookie darted into the centre of the ring, a kunai in one hand, his other one forming a half tiger seal. The shuriken threw at Naruto by the bully's second in command was directed back, and sunk into the shoulder of the brash young would-be ninja. Sasuke dropped his kunai, and his hands flicked through seals, tiger, ram, horse, sheep, and then, as Sasuke was about to form the last seal, he stopped, and looked up, into the eyes of the apprehensive Genin, sparks of flame flickering out of his mouth, and spoke, low, with not a hint of compassion, as this was not a plea,

'Please leave now... or I will be forced to incinerate all of the pathetic, useless, dead people standing around me.'

A man with silver spiked hair opened the door, to ask for a word concerning Sasuke and his _eye_ problem and froze. Fire was spitting out of Sasuke's mouth in flickers, as smoke poured out of him, there 

was the village troublemaker crouched with his kunai against a boy's throat, and _red _chakra was seeping out of every pore...

Kakashi growled, 'Everyone to their seats NOW!'

Kakashi glanced at Iruka, seeing the man incapacitated he strode over and lazily read off the teams from the sheets of paper, completely unfazed by the earlier incident, ending with 'Team 7, under myself, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Everyone remain until their Sensei arrives, my team, with me.' He was getting too old for this. All the teams so far had been rejected and he wondered if the newest ones assigned to him would have the ability, let alone the intelligence it needed to pass the first exam. Just because you were an Uchiha and knew a few handy jutsu's didn't automatically qualify you as a Genin unless you had the intelligence to see past your own ambition...

Walking out of the classroom Kakashi turned to his team. Sakura was first through the door, looking slightly shaken, glancing back at her other team mates with fear in her eyes. Naruto was emitting a guttural growl, his fists tightening around the two Kunai still in his grasp, and Sasuke, last through the door, shot a small jet of fire at someone as he walked out of the door, to a response from, 'You're all talk and no action, coward Uchiha!' With all his team lined up in front of him Kakashi, with his eyes on Naruto and Sasuke opened with,

'What can I say? From first impressions, I think I like you.'

This elicited a grin from Sasuke, a nervous laugh from Sakura, and an almost feral lopsided smile from Naruto.

'There will be an examination in a week. You three will participate _as a team_. You must pass. You will get the details of said exam on the day. I shall see you by vector 3 training grounds, near to the stump at 6 am sharp. Depending on the exam result, we will have a team discussion and our first mission assigned to us in the after noon. If I may make a suggestion, I think all three of you need to train for the upcoming exam, as if your very future as a ninja depended on it.'

With that the strange curt man with a mask that covered his mouth and nose, lopsided hitai-ate that covered his left eye and lazy cheery demeanour disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Coughing Sakura looked around at her two team-mates. She was with Sasuke-kun! Of all the things that could have happened, this was the best. True, she was stuck with that loser Naruto, but so far he seemed to have changed. For one even his stance was more _feral. _She felt a pang of attraction and started. Did she like Naruto? She turned round to Sasuke, who stood there, looking thoughtful. Not as much as she did Sasuke, anyway.

'The test coming up seems very important, so I'm off to train, Naruto I want a chat, d'ya mind? See you, Sakura...' Sasuke dismissed _her? _And was going off to talk with _Naruto?_ She stalked off towards the training grounds east of the village. Sasuke would notice _her_ in the upcoming exam... she would make him!

Sasuke kept walking... he wondered how to phrase his first question, how he could ask without actually _asking_. Naruto beat him to it,

'Sasuke, why did you step in there when I was about to kick all their asses? Why do you always have to show off, and show me up? Can't you just let me deal with my own problems? I know what you did when I first entered the academy, and I'm grateful, but... ' Naruto was talking in an almost _hurt _tone. Sasuke checked himself, and came to a stop. Naruto _knew?_

'Since when did you find out? I told them I'd kill them if they ever told you what I did'

When Naruto had first entered the academy, with the recommendation of the _hokage_ no less(this was because of the academy's teachers refusing point blank to train 'a monster'), he had attracted a lot of attention. He was constantly being challenged to a fight by all the show offs, wanting to see if the boy all their parents blanched at, when the topic was brought up, was so special for. They had soon found out he wasn't too special, but he was a good punch bag.

Sasuke noticed that Naruto started to come into school later, and that he was even more beat up than usual. More disturbingly, when sitting on the end of the pier, thinking about his first ever goukakyou no justu, and the look on his fathers face, he would sometimes see Naruto trudging home from the general direction of the academy. Naruto looked, well scuffed and beaten, not to mention the various wounds, inflicted by Shinobi, that much was obvious. There would be bruises around his temples, he would have precision cuts on his arms and torso that would make him bleed, but no more, and occasionally burn marks. Sasuke had fought a battle with himself, between compassion and the need to train _every day -_that compassion had won. He stayed around the academy the next day and saw Naruto being beaten quite easily by a gang form his year. When this gang appeared at the academy they would laugh and point at Naruto, who would find the quickest route out. So one day Sasuke sat, after watching Naruto being subject to an earth jutsu, where the user caused Naruto to flip high into the air, as the very ground he stood on exploded upwards, whilst flying through the air Naruto was then subjected to the battering of hundreds of rocks that hurtled from all sides, he landed in a defeated slumped form, unconscious.

As soon as Naruto hit the floor the insidious chakra of the Kyuubi would instantly start to mend him, but would not finish doing so until a week later. He had sustained hairline fractures to several bones in his body and a cracked rib. If force healed in a short time said injuries would heal, however the bones could possibly be damaged further, So Naruto spent a whole week in terrible pain as he trained, every day, in order to attain the strength he needed to defeat those _Bastards._

However, he was never beaten again by that gang. The earth jutsu user was the leader, and the rest knew only the standard replacement justu's that any decent ninja could see through. So Sasuke had melted the earth intended to flip him up, had melted the rocks hurled at him, and had even melted the rock barrier the earth jutsu user had used. He then set about taking apart the entire gang, a shuriken to one shoulder, a kunai lightly in one back, a firm fist to the cheekbone, feeling the bone itself break... Afterwards he had warned them. Naruto was not alone, and that anyone who intended to fuck with Naruto were going to meet with him again. No one was to know of this encounter, or everyone would know what the gang had done to Naruto. With that he had left them, stunned, defeated in the melted dirt. Naruto was like him. Completely alone, defenceless, with no family to watch over him. So Sasuke had decided to get involved. Anyway, he felt like a fight, and that earth user was a good measure of how far he had advanced in the last few years. That's what he told himself anyway, it was all just a test, because he needed to know he was the best he could possibly be, there was no way anyone in his year was going to beat him. Absolutely none.

'I don't need you Sasuke! If you keep getting involved how am I suppose to get stronger? Get involved next time and I will kick your ass!'

'Shut-up, loser...' there was a pregnant pause, 'I was wondering, as we're on the same team and all..' Sasuke looked away, hands in his pockets, too embarrassed to ask. He decided to give up and go practice at the kunai set up, he was so _close _last time, half an inch...

'Whatever, I'll see y-'

'Sure I'll train with you Sasuke, I'd like to see how easy it would be to kick your ass'

'What? Hey shut-up, loser!'

Naruto laughed in the indignant Uchiha's face, and strode down towards Ichiraku's Ramen stand, indicating to Sasuke that he could join him if he felt like it.

Sasuke followed, clenching his fists but smiling inside, despite himself.

That's my revised first ever stab at a fanfic. I wont bore you.

Constructive criticism, anything, except downright hate, welcome.

Any ideas, ? review, tell me about them!

Naruto is Naruto, but different. Why the big change? He has a DEMON inside him! The demon is talking to him! He is cursed for the rest of his life? Or is he? Anyway, its a big deal, and should be reflected in his personality! Not just brushed over, for the 'moral of the story' hard work, blah blah

Thankyou for reading. Kishimoto, plz don't sue, i don't own your fabulous creation.

But i have a better idea about what to do with it...


	2. Chapter 2

Hi readers! Well, heres the sequel to the tentative first chapter, which i have revised, rerote, restructured, and added in some of my own words. Well, it was just a tester, u see!

Iv decided to mke this a real story, so it needs some depth. Which doesn't mean anything slow, or dreary, it juts means, i cant rush ahead and say this happened, and that, without actually building my characters.

Naruto changed. Period. He found out he was the container or the most powerful, sinister demon out there, and that his parents are definitely dead, and that the entire village hates him because essentially he protects him. And in kishimoto's story he just decides to try harder, become hokage. Well, he may still want to become stronger but he has changed! For the better i think! No more gullible Naruto!

Woohoo! Anyway, heres the fanfic, so the spelling mistakes stop here!

I don't own this, just the idea and concept of altering kishimoto's invention. It had flaws. Sorry.

Chapter 2- a different beginning

Sasuke had just rolled, twisted and flipped his way through dancing knives, kunai traps and logs falling from hell knew where. Sakura had followed Sasuke through the track, running past the sprung-dodged-and now harmless traps. Naruto, who had been training last night, and so therefore thought that, as he had spent an entire night practicing taijutsu, he would find this particular challenge easier than Sasuke, with his reactions razor sharp as they were, ran full tilt at the course, making a bee-line for the end of the assault course, apparently just beyond the ridge of a hill to the north.

He noticed the tell-tale glint of a floor full of razor sharp bamboo, and running as he was, noticed with a panicked widening of eyes, that there was no way he could stop in time. By chance he glimpsed a branch overhead and made to jump to that; with the branch within reach, barely half an inch away; Naruto's breathe was literally knocked out of him. As his fingers had brushed that elusive branch his ass equally now scraped along the dusty, hard ground. His befuddled brain looked at what had just happened from a third person perspective. The trap had been laid carefully, so a tree fell as he tripped a wire, set a few feet before the perimeter of the spike-trap. Ah, the entire thing had been carefully planned, the spike trap had been, not a physical trap, meant to harm him, but a trap meant to divert his attention from a frayed rope tied to the foot of a near-by tree.

Only a brash fool would just run straight down the middle. A fool who ran and didn't look carefully at the ground, and who jumped spikes, not questioning the positioning of such a convenient branch. A fool who had just been winded so severely by a swinging log, a LOG dammit, and who now was trying in vain to actually breathe. He sat up, his blue trousers scuffed along the left thigh by dry dirt, and his hand slowly dug into the dry, hard ground, as he watched Sasuke, his enthusiasm for the entire day being doused, then Sakura disappear behind the crest of a hill in the distance.

His breathe came back in a huge, tight, desperate intake of breathe. Naruto spat and regulated his breathing. He had to think, that's what a shinobi was for, and that's why he attended an academy for the first few years of his life as a ninja. To learn to outsmart his opponent. How to dodge the traps though? Naruto sat down, and eyes closed, thought hard. It was a new experience for him...

How to _dodge _the traps... that was it!

Grinning he formed the ram seal and shouted, 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!'

Surrounded by shadow clones he carefully crept through the assault course, trying every viable route with a clone first. Why try and dodge the traps when he can just set them off with his clones? This was going to be a piece of cake.

The test went like this, get through a simple obstacle course, then proceed to combat/survival training. His mission was to survive whilst getting a single blade to touch Kakashi's torso.

So far not all had been going well.

He was Uzumaki Naruto. He was the loud, energetic future leader of the leaf village.

And he was getting his ass handed to him.

Sasuke sat on his branch, tossing his pebble lightly into the air. Turning his head slightly on the resilient, weather beaten trunk of the oak, he watched Naruto skid across the training ground.

Pathetic.

How could anyone possibly spend their entire lives training to this single moment, this all-encapsulating, critical, pivotal test, and not be able to even block a single attack from a man with one eye in a lop-sided Hitai-ate and the other in some book.

Dropping down from his tree he pulled out a scroll from his baggy shirt, and forming a basic sheep seal, several long wires now hung from his hands in coils.

He was going to catch up. There was absolutely no way he would lose, even if that meant using his teammates as bait.

He would pass, and then be taught by non other than Kakashi, an infamous ninja, known throughout Konoha for his exploits and for his ability to master almost any technique. If he could teach him, the last of the Uchiha, how he did it, Sasuke would gain so much more power...

He longed to kill... to avenge. It burnt away, smouldering in the pit of his stomach. Turned him black, and shut him off to everyone else, because he didn't need friends, they were the biggest weaknesses to a shinobi. Someone to blackmail you with, make you kill yourself over,someone who could make you lose track of your life's goal...

Naruto's face burst in a shower of gold, grinning inanely, then was replaced by the scuffed up, hollow Naruto, trudging home holding his side, blood in his footsteps...

He had to focus! He had to kill... Kakashi wanted to feel a blade against his chest, didn't he? He'd asked for it.

And Sasuke would gladly give.

Naruto lay, head pressed in the dirt, eyes closed, his breathing coming in short, sharp ragged gasps. His body useless, every limb felt like deadweight, and whenever he twisted right a jagged pain tore through his left ribs.

Images flashed through his head. Of painful memories, buried pranks and jokes. There was the first year he ever entered the academy, every day he would walk down the hall towards his classroom, heart thumping whilst he received hateful glares, comments whispered, laughter behind him, more reproachful face.

No one ever saw. No one ever noticed that anything behind his wide grin, his laughter, the smiling-bright-orange-hand-scratching behind-his-head-glass-half-full-loner. No one looked when the creak of the swings rhythmically groaned, shoes scuffing the dry dirt. Face downcast, eyes that held no feeling. In a village full of _kind, giving, compassionate_ people, not one turned their face towards his and said a word of praise, not one asked about him, they just shunted him out of the way.

Mistake. Freak. Monster.

Alone

Completely alone. Spending each day surrounded, yet isolated. Going back to his apartment, the small blonde boy completely and utterly abandoned, with absolutely no-one to talk to, huddled beneath his blankets pain tearing at his guts, that would churn and he'd get a burning pain in the pit of his stomach, that would slowly knaw out, and envelop his entire body, burning, searing...

Sometimes he'd get angry, and go training. Once he'd got a little too angry. His only memory was waking up, in the middle of a _dense_ forest. Only to find not one tree in a half mile radius stood upright.

Not one.

He'd stumbled home, and been attacked. With absolutely no strength left, his entire body strained and aching he curled up into a ball. Losing that bit more of himself, becoming less and less 'in' the world, withdrawing, until he was a spectator, poking fun at everything.

Because how else was he going to laugh?

Sasuke watched as Naruto stirred, his black top torn, his shorts smeared with dry dirt along his left leg. His entire body shook, and his eyes levelled to his teachers, before he drew a kunai, and ran headfirst at the unsuspecting reader. Ahem. Jounin.

Kakashi merely held up his hand and stopped the strike by grasping Naruto's wrist, twisting it until Naruto dropped his kunai. That was it. That his one last effort at escaping the old world. A world that had improved dramatically last year, when he had met Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba. A world with a rival, someone a little bit more _like _him. A world that would always hold Iruka. Iruka's disappointment in Naruto's failure. His cheery face, probably assuring him that he'd pass someday. He was just unlucky, just like last time, just like the time before that.

Just like the very beginning of his life.

Naruto felt, the... the _anger_ again. That fire that coursed through his veins. That same clenching pain in his stomach, as his arms suddenly no longer felt like a dead-weight. They felt like... felt like... like they were tools, which only had to be willed to do and the job would be over. His back curved slightly, and his shoulders broadened. A leaf flew past, gently brushing his cheek, which made his whole body shiver... Everything seemed so, _easy_Kakashi giggled a little to himself as he read a particularly smutty chapter, where the lead character had managed to get the businessman's daughter to...

He felt something connect with his shoulder, and immediately flew into a roll, his book spinning away. He cast his senses out, behind himself, getting ready to activate his Sharingan. Whatever had just hit him was not one of those useless brats. It had held power, speed, and to top it all, had hit him without he even noticing its approach.

Sasuke's jaw hung open, Sakura's eyes widened to saucers, and Kakashi did a double take. In the middle of the clearing stood Naruto, his clothing battered, but his cuts and grazes completely gone. His stomach was the source of a faint swirling red energy, barely there, but to a jounin clear as razor sharp crystal. Naruto's chest heaved out, and collapsed back in. His hands tightened until red seeped out from in between his knuckles. The faint whiskers on his cheeks widened, until they were black gashes across his face.

Savouring the feeling of the claws digging into his smooth palms, Naruto slowly rose his head. He was never going to go back, back to _that._ That scuffed, abused little bundle of misery. The one that spent some afternoons huddled in bed, curled up in a ball of hate and desolation.

Naruto, head still tilted down, glared at Kakashi, who relaxed. It was one of the squirts. He must have been more into that book than he realised. He began casting about for it, searching for the orange, lewd novel.

Naruto watched as his sensei turned around and began looking around, peeking under bushes and craning his head around knarled stumps. The pressure in his stomach increased. _He was being ignored_. No doubt his teacher was looking around for _Uchiha, _now he could sayhe'd tested him and found him lacking; needed more teaching, more schooling, needed to sink back into that hole of seeping black that reached up and twisted round him, constricting his breathe, suffocating, twisting underneath his ribs, feelings lost, discarded, because they felt too dam bad. Not bad, but worse like he had lost the will to _be._

As if his life was a death sentence.

Ironic, huh? What else is a Shinobi's life? Maybe that's why he'd chosen this path. This pain.

Suddenly the cramping pain in his stomach flared, Naruto doubled over and emitted a strangled cry. Then there was no pain. There was nothing left. No fear, no misery, but anger. Clear, cold blazing anger. And everything that had happened to him over his entire life was suddenly down to one man. Who wouldn't let him escape, who wanted him to continue to live as he was, with absolutely no dam reason.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he felt it. The Flare of Chakra, again from a power far too great to be from one of his brats. Then the Chakra rolled over him again, and this time he felt something different in there. A malice, a darker more malevolent intent.

Sasuke watched as Naruto suddenly blurred, a blue-black whippet, who left a hint of red in his wake. Maybe he wasn't going to be able to use his teammates so easily. Then again, this may open up some interesting opportunities...

Kakashi spun round, to see Naruto moving faster than he thought possible. He raised his hands, and readied his posture so he could perform a basic sweeping kick, which is all that was needed to send Naruto spinning back the way he came.

It was with considerable surprise that Kakashi felt his block, albeit a lazy and half-committed wimpy sort of block, being blasted aside, and the knuckles impacting against his mask, sinking into his shocked face, and resulting in the jounin literally flying backwards and, still in shock, arch his back against the trunk of a quite oak.

Naruto stood there, breathing still perfectly normal, power coursing through him, swelling his chest, tightening the muscles in his arms, and stared through thick hair, hanging further down than usual. He felt the warm blood trickling down his finger and in another way could sense the metallic taste in the air, exciting him, his nose twitching. Everything felt more _vibrant_ the world had more smells, more colours, everything seemed that much more closer, his eyes roving through the air, from that buzzing filling his ears, to the sound of cloth rustling in the general direction that Kakashi had just travelled, along with his surprised eye, and laconic, lazy, superior ass with him.

The power rose again, as Kakashi stood and pulled out a kunai, not really sure of what faced him, the kid or... something else. Was it trying to get out? Was it in control in some way? How was he supposed to deal with a kyuubi maddened student trying to plunge his, whoa, his inch long claws into him? He was going to have to be wary. A genin Naruto may be, but this wasn't entirely Naruto anymore, this animal, the power seeping out like a sea of chakra, flowing, flooding, rushing at Kakashi, buffeting him, pressing him down... he had no idea who was in control of this power and those slitted eyes focusing upon him, burning with open hatred caused his hair to stand up on

All Naruto sensed was fear, and then saw, through sensitive eyes, the glint of sunlight off metal as the kunai in Kakashi's hand was raised, in defiance. There was no way I'm letting _you through. _Your not a person, your a cage, your possessed, tainted, and I want nothing to do with you.

With this Naruto felt a different power rise up, not so sharp, but... raw...

It Hurt. It made his spine curve, his jaw spiked through with pain, his teeth were shooting more pain through him. All there was; was pain.

Naruto slowly looked up and a thought shot through his shaking skull. When hadn't there been?

The lake behind Kakashi glinted, the sunlight danced across the waves, glittering its own shafts of light into Naruto's eyes, an intense red, that reflected the sharp kunai in Kakashi's grasp, the glittering ripples shimmered in Naruto's vision, who felt the soreness of a lonely child's heart, turned from an aching sorrow to a savage bloodlust.

Starting with Kakashi...

In the Hokage's office stood the third, staring down at a glass ball, face a mask of sorrow. Another frown line had creased his brow when he saw the blood dripping from the crimson eyed young shinobi's hands, which now hit the ground, palm's rough, cracked and bleeding, with not even a wince from the blonde's face. He watched as the air around the boy rippled with power, and took on a red hazy mist, wrapping closely around the boys form. He had been warned about this in a letter, written hastily in slanting, hurried black ink.

This letter was forbidden. It had to be one of the biggest secrets of Konohagakure, and only the Hokage even knew of its existence. He had spent years fathoming its contents, and wasn't entirely sure if he understood some of the diagrams, he was never _that_ good at seals anyway, but the one that had been sloppily displayed had caused him months of hard work, revising and improving his old brain. He had laid back and forgotten, in as much as that can be done, about all that 'hokage stuff'. He had spent his entire life protecting his village, had grown old, and maybe not weak, but with a lot less power than he had had 10, 20 years ago. He could feel it deep in his bones. Then that red, lithe monster had come, intent on the destruction of everything he had held dear, and he had spent weeks and weeks agonising over whether he should, and could perform _that _seal on the fox. In the end it hadn't mattered. His replacement had been well chosen, and had risen to the task and sacrificed his life, and his son, for the future of the village.

He had left a severely crippled village to be lead out of its dark days, by and old man, well seasoned at his job. A good, well respected hokage, who held many strong links throughout the shinobi world. However, he may be wise, he may be respected, but was he feared? Was his reputation alone enough to scare off the various powerful missing nin? And so Konoha spent the next ten years solidifying themselves as a major power again, stretching themselves to the limit. Taking as many jobs as possible in order to show their strength.

Because to show weakness was death in a world brimming with cold-blooded killers.

He had tried to harden Naruto over the years. The boy had a naturally friendly and inquisitive nature, and with a future destined to entail enrolment as a shinobi of the hidden leaf, he needed t be made insensitive to the looks from the village, the way he was shunned, occasionally beaten. He was a shinobi, after all. It had appeared it had worked, but not in the way the hokage had hoped. Instead of ignoring the villagers and training to become strong for his fickle village, Naruto learned of hate.

In a field adjacent to the burning red aura two green blurs shimmered across a green field, flying apart as quickly as they had coming together and crashing through green undergrowth, causing green leaves to explode in a shower of green nature. It was all very green.

'Gai-sensei, I did it, I finally did it!' the shorter green ninja of Konoha bounced up and down, grinning broadly.

'Well done lee, but remember, that is only the first stage. If you use the full potential of your exuberant youth, you could unlock at least 3 times that power' A solemn, larger green powerhouse replied.

The shorter green shinobi stopped bouncing, his exuberant youth suddenly serious, 'There's more? How Gai-sensei? With that much power I could achieve my dream of becoming a powerful ninja! Not just powerful...' Two orb-like eyes gazed off solemnly into the distance, far away, dreaming of his future ambitions fulfilled, and a bigger green jumpsuit...

'Now, now, Lee, just harnessing more power will _not_ guarantee victory. A shinobi like you and me must spend every day of our lives in constant training, increasing the ability of the body through rigorous training. What is your training maxim, Lee?'

The boisterous, youth, Rock Lee, threw a pose, and with a serious gaze and an enthusiasm that would drive him to the very ends of the earth practically shouted, 'The more I bleed in training, the less I bleed on the battlefield, And the less I bleed, the easier it will be to protect what is precious to me.'

'Oh, Lee!'

'Gai-sensei!'

'Lee!'

'Gai-se-' Lee's and Gai's tearful embrace, with a backdrop of a burning sun, shining through the breaking, foamy waves, leaping up around them, was interrupted, as the ground suddenly shook, and an ominous red flare shot out atop the trees, immediately replaced by the serene, blue sky, completely unbroken azure, except now there was a.. feeling the in the air, settling on their shoulders, unsettling their heart. Gai stood up and, leaping into the nearby trees, blurred towards the source. A tired an achy Lee followed swiftly, albeit slower, due to the numerous falls from tree branches. Hell, this power felt good, but afterwards he was pretty shoddy at his taijutsu. He needed to ask Gai about overcoming this latest obstacle...

About the fourth and Naruto... lets not beat around the bush, we know he's his father. There's no question anymore. It's no longer a myth but a reality, so get over it. Oh, yea, it is a bit of a spoiler I suppose... well, can't be helped!

I would really appreciate some reviews! Though i have a general idea what direction im taking this inot, i would realy value some input, who knows, some of ur ideas may end up altering the future of this fanfic!

Cheers my fellow readers, gnite


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